This invention relates generally to water drinking fountains and more particularly relates to an improved fountain attachment for a water facet, especially a water faucet equipped with an aerator.
Many fountain attachments for water faucets have been proposed in the past which let the faucet serve the dual purpose of discharging a stream of water downwardly for utilitarian purposes and also direct a jet of water upwardly for drinking directly from the jet. These prior art faucet fountain attachments have generally employed pivotable members designed to allow the discharge of water in one position and to direct the flow of water in a drinking jet in another pivoted position.
A number of faucet fountains are disclosed in the prior art which are threaded or clamped to the faucet outlet so as to hold them in place and prevent leakage. These are difficult to attach or require special tools.
An improved faucet fountain is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,597 issued Jun. 19, 1992 to William Crutcher with a tubular body of yieldable plastic material adapted for frictional engagement with the discharge end of a water faucet. A preferred material was flexible polyurethane which was yieldable and also suitable for a living hinge connecting the tubular body with the closure member, enabling injection molding of the faucet fountain in a single piece. Yieldable plastic material not only allows accomodation of variations in aerator shape and diameter for the frictional engagement, but also provides a better sealing surface to prevent leakage around the closure member at the discharge end of the faucet fountain.
On the other hand it is possible to reduce the cost of the plastic material, to utilize a less expensive hinged flap and to obtain improved exterior appearance in some cases by using rigid thermosetting plastics such as ABS, or PVC, which are easily molded and cost less to produce. However these plastics are not easy to attach to different size aerators by friction fit, because they do not yield as much to accomodate variations in size and diameter. Therefore several different sizes are required unless a clamping device is used. Also hard plastics do not give a good seal when the closure member is pivoted against the discharge end to divert the flow of water into the fountain outlet. There may be other types of rigid materials such as die cast metal or fabricated metal shells or metallized plastics, which provide more choices in external appearance.
It would be desirable to have an easily attachable and detachable faucet fountain with an exterior made of rigid material, which fits a variety of faucet aerator sizes, and which provides a good seal with the closure member at the discharge end.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide an improved fountain attachment for a faucet which is simple, inexpensive and provides a pleasing external appearance.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved fountain attachment of rigid material with a hinged flap which fits a variety of aerator sizes and has a good seal with the flap at the discharge end.